Sunday, 8 May 2016

Finlay Family Farmyard

My mother Edna's maiden name was Finlay and she spent the early part of her childhood at Milltown, which is just up the road from Southbridge. Even today Milltown is hardly a town, more a few scattered houses with a slight bend in the road and a T intersection which takes you towards the sea which can be heard roaring in the distance.

In the old family photograph albums I found these snaps, mostly from the 1930's, of rural Kiwi life at that time on a small farm. Not surprisingly horses, dogs, sheep, cows, hens and assorted creatures feature prominently.

I love how in all these old photos my mother looks like a little ragamuffin, a wild child! I think her childhood was mostly a free and happy one where her greatest fun was roughing it with her brothers and sisters and the many animals around which their life revolved. I know she enjoyed milking the cows and even years later would recall with glee the times she managed to squirt milk directly from a cow's teat all over an unwary brother or sister!

Below : Uncle George, my mother's brother, with his dogs and the sheep

Below : The dairy cows

Below : Mum as a child with a dog

Below : Mum on a horse

Below : Mum with another dog (gee, I wonder where I got my love of horses and dogs from!)